Joseph Belbruno Blog

  Opinion | The Moment Alan Greenspan Should Be Remembered For By Roger Lowenstein Mr. Lowenstein is the author of “America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve.” Whatever else, Alan Greenspan should be remembered for what is surely the rarest virtue among public officials: admitting error. The moment was Oct. 23, 2008. The American financial system was in tatters. Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were bust, and the government had taken equity stakes in private banks in a bid to arrest the crisis. Americans were swamped with mortgage debt and suffering through a brutal recession. Mr. Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, had retired less than three years earlier. No one had championed the free market system or worked to block financial regulation, which he disparaged as both harmful and unnecessary, with more ardor than he had. As head of the most powerful of the agencies that regulated banks, he hadn’t used his authorities to quash the bubble in...

  Investor redemption requests at Apollo’s flagship retail private credit fund surged to 17 per cent of the vehicle’s value in the second quarter, underscoring fears of falling returns and rising stress in debt markets. The firm’s $15bn Apollo Debt Solutions fund pitched to wealthy individual investors reported roughly $2.4bn of withdrawal requests in the most recent period. The fund met less than 30 per cent of the withdrawals it faced in the quarter, capping redemptions at 5 per cent of the value of the vehicle. The Apollo fund, which has an investment portfolio worth nearly $26bn, had been hit with withdrawal requests of 11 per cent in the first quarter. The rising withdrawal requests at the fund signal that the broader investor exodus from private credit has not abated, even as public markets have rallied and a sell-off in loans to private equity-backed software companies has moderated. The funds have been a significant fundraising source for private investment groups, offeri...

  All the Money Flooding Into AI Is a Giant Warning Sign When companies as a group turn into sellers, it’s a reasonable sign that stocks are very overpriced By SpaceX launched its IPO earlier this month. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images What should you do if investors bid up your stock on the basis that you will be a winner in artificial intelligence, but your product isn’t popular? Elon Musk has the answer: Use your expensive stock to buy another AI business. SpaceX ’s $60 billion all-stock purchase of Cursor , a programming assistant that popularized “vibe-coding,” makes Musk a player in corporate AI in a way that his Grok chatbot hasn’t . It is also part of a rush of stock issuance that should raise serious red flags even among those who dismiss elevated valuations. Companies always have a choice of how to finance capital spending and takeovers. They can raise debt or issue stock (or a mix). If interest rates are low, debt is cheap for companies. Equally, if stock valuations are ...

  ‘I’m the President and You’re Not’: Trump Tests His Power and Frustrates the GOP The president has made a series of decisions that have confounded Republicans and are challenging his grip on the party By , and Updated  June 19, 2026 9:07 am  ET President Trump shortly after arriving in France this week for a Group of Seven summit.   Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Quick Summary President Trump is increasingly relying on his own instincts, making decisions that frustrate Republicans and test his party control. Trump agreed to a preliminary peace deal with Iran, drawing criticism from Republicans who say it offers Tehran a financial lifeline. The president delayed his intelligence chief nominee’s confirmation to keep an acting pick, and tied a spying law renewal to a voter-ID bill. This summary was generated with AI and reviewed by an editor.  Read more  about how we use artificial intelligence in our journalism. President Trump is increasingly relying on his ...

  Breakingviews - Galbraith’s bezzle lurks beneath the AI frenzy June 19, 2026 3:01 PM GMT+10 Updated June 19, 2026 AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab LONDON, June 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - In his book “The Great Crash 1929”, John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “bezzle”. The economist defined the term as “an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in – or more precisely not in – the country’s businesses and banks.” According to Galbraith, the bezzle grows “in good times [when] people are relaxed, trusting, and money is plentiful”. We are living through such times, once again. Enthusiasm for anything ​related to AI has made investors too relaxed and trusting about the financial activities of the leading companies involved in the technology revolution. The bezzle comes in various forms. It is found when ‌companies overstate their earning...